I installed the latest leaked ICS update...here is my story

[JeffDenver]

Short version:

- It is awesome. Sense 3.6 does not offend me nearly as much as I thought it would.
- Of course I installed Apex Launcher anyway. I still don't like Sense.
- All menus are fast and smooth...it almost feels like an iOS device.
- The speed is not an illusion...Quadrant score was 3000...about 600 or 700 points higher than my best score under stock GB. And about 700 points higher than the stock Galaxy Nexus (suck it Nexus lol)

Thats all for now as I have not had a chance to play with it very long yet. But everything is snappier and faster. The camera app is the same, but is also faster. I love how ICS menus and screen transitions fade in and flow smoothly. It is an iOS-like polish that does make stuff look a lot better.

Pro tips:
You must be Locked AND Unrooted to install the update. The process to re-lock is the same as the process to unlock, except when you get to the fastboot part you type "fastboot oem lock" in the command line...it is much easier than you would think.

The update needs to be on an EXTERNAL SD card...if you have it on any internal memory (even internal SD) it will not recognize the update file. You must have it sitting in the root directory of the external SD card.

Be patient when it finally starts. It will appear to hang sometimes...on mine it appeared to unzip and install the "system" portion several times...but I think it was just installing many different system files, not a single big system file.

Droid life link and instructions:
HTC Rezound Receives Another Ice Cream Sandwich Build Leak, Includes Newer Radios and Bug Fixes – Droid Life

BEFORE:




AFTER:

 

[LoudRam]

Why do the instructions on the link you posted say that you need to be locked and you're saying that you need to be unlocked?

 

[JeffDenver]

That was my fault...I mean locked.

 

[LoudRam]

OK, cool. Did it wipe anything on your phone? I use Go Launcher. Do you think I would be better off going back to Sense when I do this?

 

[HowardZ]

You had to be unrooted?

Being rooted caused you problems?
Or you read this somewhere?

 

[JeffDenver]

Did it wipe anything on your phone? I use Go Launcher. Do you think I would be better off going back to Sense when I do this?

Yes, it did wipe my phone. My SMS messages are gone (I had them backed up anyway). It did not appear to wipe the external SD though.

I am personally not a big fan of any Vendor OS, including Sense. Sense 3.6 is better, but I immediately installed Apex Launcher anyway. I don't think GoLauncher works with ICS. GoSMS does though.

You had to be unrooted?

Being rooted caused you problems?
Or you read this somewhere?

I was not rooted...I was originally rooted, but the last OTA update unrooted me (though it did not re-lock me...which is why I had to relock this time). The "Unrooted" and "re-locked" criteria are based on what I have seen on the net from other people.

Being rooted didn't cause me problems, I just didn't want it enough to hassle with re-rooting. The rooting process was a little involved and I didn't really care about the bloat enough to jump through the hoops to do it again.

 

[LoudRam]

Thanks. I'm REALLY tempted to install this leak today.

Sent from my HTC Rezound using Droid Forums

 

[JeffDenver]

I gave it till the 9th...I am tired of waiting. From what I have read online, this is a polished release candidate with all the critical stuff fixed. I have not made any calls with it yet, but the radios seem to work well...Speedtest produced similar results to GB for me.

Man, a quadrant score of 3000 is pretty sweet. The stock Galaxy Nexus on sprint gets about 2000. Antutu benchmarks were comparable between the Nexus and my phone, although mine was slightly higher.

 

[LoudRam]

And if I understand this correctly, if the official OTA ics build number is higher than this leak my phone will take the OTA update?

 

[JeffDenver]

Yes, my understanding is that this may prevent installation of the official OTA. But since this is only a release candidate, I am guessing the official OTA is going to have a higher version number.

My understanding is that even if it is not, you can still install it manually. This is not a ROM for root users...this is an official update from Verizon. it is just not a version that was released to the public.

 

[LoudRam]

I'm downloading the leak now onto my computer. It's going to take a while. I have a fast connection but an old and slow computer. My phones processor blows it away.

Sent from my HTC Rezound using Droid Forums

 

[JeffDenver]

Yeah, it's big. 600 megs.

Don't get put off by the installation process...on mine I thought it was hanging because it appeared to be installing the "system" file over and over....but eventually it went past it. I think it was installing multiple files of the same type or something. The whole update took me about 10 or 15 minutes start to finish.

 

[JeffDenver]

Make sure you are downloading the one I linked too...not the one from May 2. The May 2 one is fine too but does have some minor bugs from what I heard.

 

[Stelv]

Side note: If you have gone through the process of getting s-off, your phone is already locked. You don't need to unroot and re-lock to install the leak. You will need to reinstall Amon-Ra recovery again though after the leak, and there is flashable file for this for people with s-off.

 

[kylecthomas]

is there any reason to wait for the OTA update instead of installing this?